Common room

A common room is a nice place to hang out. When dorms get renovated, they tend to get more common rooms, and nicer common rooms. Morgan and Mission are good examples of this phenomenon.

"Common room" can also refer to certain public spaces not in dorms, such as the "Physics Common Room," which is the room immediately to the right as you enter the Thompson Physics Laboratory. This and other such "common rooms" not in dorms gain the name by being generally open to students, comfortable, and typically not reserved for special functions that preclude casual use.